KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — The Union Pacific railroad teamed up with the Oregon State Police in an annual effort to encourage safety around railroads, the Herald and News reports.
Using the same locomotives that carried the Olympic torch through Klamath Falls last winter, state and railroad police officers spent a day riding the rails, watching for unsafe behavior at railroad crossings while other officers waited nearby in cars to cite offenders.
The locomotives followed a secondary rail line from Klamath Falls to Tulelake and back, and then followed the main line south to Dorris. The passengers got off in Macdoel and the locomotives continued south to Dunsmuir, where they will be featured in a railroad festival this weekend.
The sting was part of Operation Lifesaver, a national non-profit program dedicated to ending collisions, injuries and fatalities at railroad crossings and on railroad rights-of-way.
According to Union Pacific engineer Tom Hastings, railroad safety education and enforcement is important because many drivers and pedestrians don’t take trains seriously enough.
“We kill about 800 people a year on the railroads,” he said.
That statistic hit home in the Klamath Basin in 1998 when three students were killed at an ungated railroad crossing on Henley Road. That crossing was gated soon after, but nearly four years later the incident still defines the importance of railroad safety in a county where many crossings remain ungated.
“That really drove home the need to have better education for our drivers,” said Klamath County Commissioner John Elliot. “A lot of our roads cross these railroads.”
Elliot and Al Switzer, another county commissioner, rode along Tuesday to show their support for the effort, which was coordinated by Klamath County Emergency Manager Bill Thompson.
Thompson called the day a success and said several officers who were participating for the first time learned a lot about railroad laws.
“I think they’ll be real vigilant in enforcing those laws,” he said.
The operation yielded 18 citations, including one trespass, and six warnings.